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31 March 2004The Drive Team

Mini for Mars

Mini will take on NASA with an ambitious program to send cars to Mars. Ads in today's Age and around Melbourne show the maker's desire to tackle the surface of Mars with the help of special new features. They include Warpdrive Superthruster retro-rocket boosters, Rock Hopper suspension, Planet Nav, Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometers and Asteroid shields and an Oxy-Martian system.

In case you hadn't worked it out, it's all part of an April Fool's joke designed to show Mini is still fun and funky.

Ute cold war heats up

About the last car you'd expect to spot testing in a Swedish winter is a Holden, but that's exactly what Automedia snapped while on the usual spy rounds recently.

The lightly camouflaged Commodore ute is interesting in that it has the flared wheel arch extensions and front-end treatment of the Adventra and Cross8 off-roaders, yet it has a tray-back rear in lieu of the regular ute.

In isolation, none of the components are new – although sources suggest the car could have been testing the all-new V6 engine that will be launched in the Commodore later this year. The combination of 4WD in a trayback configuration also suggests Holden is considering an off-road version of the classic "one-tonner" to bolster its ute range in the fight against Ford.

The proliferation of new ute variants has helped Holden finally get on top of Ford when it comes to the hard-fought sales race for utes. The addition of the dual cab (Crewman) and 4WD models saw Holden sell 3251 utes (251 of which are 4WD models) for the first two months of this year, compared with 3052 for Ford.

Hard-top mooted for MX-5

Mazda's third-generation MX-5 – due late next year – looks set to have a folding hard-top, according to overseas reports. However, the new body shape, which will be sold alongside a traditional soft-top MX-5, will not arrive until later in the car's model life. The hard-top version, which includes a different rear suspension system and smaller boot, would broaden the appeal of the class-leading roadster.

Types of idiot

TAC chief executive Stephen Grant says it is a puzzle that people still drink and drive, despite the warnings, but adds that offenders can be categorised. One group, people who drink to excess and are way over the legal limit when they get behind the wheel, can only be dealt with by punishment by the law. "Bloody idiots ... need the full weight of the state and the law to change that behaviour," Grant says.

The "low-level" drink drivers (those between 0.05 and 0.1 BAC) could be targeted with information campaigns to change their behaviours. "With people who drive a little over the limit, it's often just through ignorance. We don't carry breathalysers around with us, so we don't know if we're over the limit," Grant says.

Phantom menaced

A grab for publicity by Rolls-Royce – whereby the company allowed journalists to drive the car – backfired on Channel Nine's A Current Affair last week when one of the few who can stump up the million-dollar pricetag, trucking magnate Lindsay Fox, said he would not be buying because he "wasn't impressed by the design". The BMW-developed Phantom lost out on Fox's expansive automotive shopping list to the just-as-pricey Maybach brand relaunched by Mercedes.

Only in America

It seems the Mercedes badge isn't as robust in the US as it is here, backing up claims that Americans are not as fixated with brand image as us Australians. Benz this week started a set of television commercials to emphasise the marque's reputation for quality in an effort to halt a slide in market share.

Relative newcomer Lexus - which was unheard of 15 years ago - is now the most popular luxury marque in the US. In Australia it's a different story, with Mercedes a leader when it comes to sales of luxury cars, with 14,260 sold last year. BMW is a close second with 12,973 sales last year, while Lexus sold a more modest 4490 cars.

Car boss in bike crash

The managing director of Chrysler-Jeep Australia, Gerry Jenkins, was in intensive care at the Alfred Hospital earlier this week following a serious motorcycle accident on Sunday. Jenkins is apparently alert and in good spirits but has a very badly broken leg, among other injuries.

What's on

Some of Australia's wildest-looking modified cars will be on show at the Melbourne Auto Salon at the Exhibition Centre on Saturday and Sunday. Adults $18; children 12 and under, $10.